5 Reasons we love Tom Cruise

Writer: Casey Lee

Why do you love Tom Cruise?

Few actors have been able to command a massive audience by the simple mention of their name on the poster, but Tom Cruise is definitely still in the game. Even from his earliest roles in the 1990s, franchises and movies have been made by the sheer charisma and traction that his name commands, making box office hits after box office hits that seem to be carried by his force of personality alone.

Making his presence known again as ex-military investigator Jack Reacher in "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back", we look through his career to find what makes Tom Cruise such a special ingredient to the movies he has starred in, and why we still love him for what he is.

Larger than Life Roles

Tom Cruise may have started off with some domesticated roles early in his career that made his fame, but his roles have only gotten bigger and more unbelievable as his career grew. Nowadays, Cruise has almost avoided taking a role that is more suited for mundane dramas, and only go for those that only made us wish we could be like them. From an ace fighter pilot, a white samurai, a police officer that arrests criminals before the crime is committed, a futuristic scavenger, a superspy to an alien-busting soldier trapped in a time loop, Cruise's roles don't come in small packages with his big personality. Even when cast as Jack Reacher, who according to the books is described to be much taller and tardier than Cruise's relatively shorter height and smaller stature, the author of the books Lee Childs gave his blessings to have Cruise as Reacher because: "Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way."

Does His Own Stunts

There may still be a lot of actors who perform their own stunts, but few are as notorious as Tom Cruise. Especially when you have seen the stunts that he has performed for the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. Risking life and limbs time and time again for cinematic spectacle is slowly becoming a bygone tradition even for the most veteran of actors, but Cruise still insists on doing his own stunts from car chases, personally climbing the world's tallest towers, to hanging onto a plane at take-off, which constantly puts him a breath away from certain death. And that hasn't stopped him, even as the actor continues to age, his stunts have only become more dangerous, but it certainly builds up our expectations of what he would do to tempt fate.

Never Gets Old

We don't just mean that about his movies, but literally him physically. Born with natural good looks that Time once called him a 'baby-faced Christopher Reeve", it is undeniable that it had much to do with establishing his early fame. But as the years rolled by and him being in the business for decades, his charismatic looks in the latest "Mission: Impossible" doesn't seem to have degraded much since he was "Jerry Maguire", and that's not something that can be said for other actors that have been in the industry since. We don't know his secret to keeping his youthful appearance (whether it is Scientology, or just being rich enough to pay for any kinds of plastic surgery), but being staying young has always worked in his favour, even in his action roles of late.

His Crazy Life

While we have already given much reason to love him as an actor, a daredevil and a never aging heartthrob, his life off the set have also been both a fascination and a curiosity to even his most casual fans. Involved and later married to some of the most sought after actresses of their time (before divorcing them), doing public stunts that borderlines being eccentric, and his spiritual association with the Church of Scientology (even though he once aspired to be a Catholic priest), makes his personal life as interesting to watch on the tabloids as his blockbusting movies in the theaters.

He's a Movie Star

When we put all the reasons together, Tom Cruise's life and career seem to accumulate to a form of celebrity that isn't as common nowadays. Extravagant and eccentric, mainstream yet mysterious, glamourous yet ripe for gossip, while most actors of his age might opt to slow down for a leisure retirement or taking onto more serious and artistic roles, Cruise is perfectly comfortable embracing his celebrity status that always seem out of reach, and even imaginary. Cruise is probably one of the few we can call a Movie Star from the pre-social media definition, and yet is still able to keep that image strong even as stardom has become more cynical and contrived.

Tom Cruise's latest, "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" comes to cinemas this 20 October 2016.